Hip Dysplasia

I just experienced another great irony in my life. As the owner of a large breed dog, I know quite a bit about canine hip dysplasia; the irony, of course, is that my daughter, not my dog, has hip dysplasia. Luckily for us, the human kind can be detected at birth and corrected before the bones harden completely - not so for our canine friends.

We had our orthopedic appointment yesterday. I must say that I love Children's Health Systems. The doctor was very good about explaining to me exactly what is going on with Ella's hips and what we will be doing to fix them. She has a very mild case of hip dysplasia due to her breech presentation. As he explained to me, when the baby presents head down, its legs are in the perfect position for hip development - pulled up and folded at the knee, think Indian style. Ella sat butt down, basically folded in half with her legs straight up in front of her face. The hip is a ball and socket joint, and both of hers are in the sockets and stable, they just aren't in there deep enough. They want to see the socket cover 60% of the femoral head (the ball), and at our three week ultrasound she had 30% coverage on one side and 40% coverage on the other. They aren't too bad, but they treat them anyway because there is no guarantee they will correct themselves. From what I've read, first-born daughters are most likely to develop dysplasia - especially when they were a breech presentation.

Her treatment consists of wearing a Pavlik harness full time for the next 6 weeks. Full time means ALL the time - no taking it off for anything. We have to sponge bathe her and diaper around the harness. If it gets dirty, I'm supposed to wipe it off with a rag. I think that part bothers me most of all because I can just imagine how gross and stinky the thing is going to be in six weeks. People who say babies don't get dirty are just wrong. The harness holds her legs in a bent postion so that they are positioned optimally for development. Right now the cartilage in her hips is still very soft, so it will mold over the femoral head as it hardens. We go back in three weeks to have the harness re-fitted, and in six weeks we will have another ultrasound. At that point, the doctor will decide if she needs to continue wearing it full time or if we can start weaning her off of it.

The minor inconveniences:
1. We have to diaper around it.
2. No more real baths for a while. This makes me sad because she loves them so much and baths are an excellent tool for calming her fussiness in the evenings. Oh well; she still likes having her hair washed and being sponged off.
3. No more swaddling because it pushes her legs too close together. This isn't so bad because we had reached a point where swaddling just made her madder anyway.
4. No more wearing her in a sling for the same reason. I had already started wearing her in a wrap anyway because she has gotten too heavy for me to wear in the sling for long. I'll be getting a backpack carrier for Dave to use.
5. Most of her clothes won't go over it. We will be in t-shirts and dresses only for the next six weeks.

The blessings:
1. We don't have too worry about losing those tiny socks because the harness has it's own sock boots built in.
2. I get to add a new backpack to my babywearing collection. I LOVE wearing her - it's an easy and miraculous way to stop the crying and have my hands free.
3. It's August - the hottest month at 100 degrees in the shade - so I don't really have to worry about the clothes fitting over the harness.
4. All newborns are screened for hip dysplasia - especially those with a breech presentation - allowing early detection and correction before the bones are too hard. The prognosis for complete correction is very good, especially since her case is mild.
5. The harness doesn't bother Ella at all. She doesn't seem to care in the least that she's wearing it.
6. It makes my squirmy worm just a little less squirmy. :)

If you would like to pray a specific prayer for us, please pray that both hips have 60% coverage at the next ultrasound and we can start weaning off of the harness. God is good all the time, even when we don't understand what He is up to.